Bimha hails Nash Paints

Ishemunyoro Chingwere Business ReporterINDUSTRY and Commerce Minister, Dr Mike Bimha, says internationally recognised standardisation can give local companies a good pedestal to compete with international companies on the same footing. Dr Bimha was speaking at a dinner held in the capital to celebrate manufacturing giant and distributor of automotive and decorative paints, Nash Paints, after they got an ISO certification.

“This is a great day in the history of Nash Paints since the attainment of ISO 9000: 2008 certification is a momentous achievement in the organisation’s commitment to demonstrating your ability to consistently provide products that meet customer and applicable statutory and regulatory requirements,” said Minister Bimha.

“They (certification) also level the playing field for developing countries and facilitate free and fair global trade through benchmarking against international best practices,” he said. This, Minister Bimha added, is happening at time Government is working towards strengthening the National Quality Infrastructure (NQI) to enable local industry to participate successfully in regional and international trade.

The minister also praised the company, led by Mr Tinashe Mutarisi (CEO), for a embarking on an expansion project that has seen them, “diversify into automotive paints, paint accessories, house paints as well as growing its employee base from a core of just four to the current 220 employees. Zimbabwean industry has over the past two years been registering tremendous growth largely due to SI 64, which seeks to restrict imports as a way of giving local industry a chance to recapitalise.

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From a low industrial capacity utilisation of 34, 3 percent in 2015, Zimbabwe in 2016 recorded a rise in utilisation to 47, 4 percent in 2016 and an ongoing survey for 2017 is highly expected to report even further growth. Standards Association of Zimbabwe director general Dr Eve Gadzikwa, whose organisation approves certification, having being accredited to do so for the past 16 years, said her organisation’s hope is the newly ISO certified Nash Paints will strive to maintain high standards. She also explained that the certification will have a one year validity period as opposed to the norm of three years because the standard (ISO 90001: 2008) has transitioned to 9001: 2015 therefore Nash Paints will be required to meet the new standard.